A trio of upcoming performances to highlight here, including new album launches by the Carroll Sisters and Copley Street, and a reunion of fiddle-harp duo Jenna Moynihan and Màiri Chaimbeul.

•When it comes to putting out a debut album, many artists tend to follow the three Rs: release, reflect, relax – and don’t worry about doing the next album just yet.

Not so the Carroll Sisters, fiddle-playing siblings from Connecticut who have been regulars at many Celtic events around Boston for years.

The Carroll Sisters Trio performs at Club Passim on August 19. Photo by Louise Bichan

The Carrolls had no sooner put the wraps on their first recording, “Daybreak,” which came out in late 2021, then they were already planning for the follow-up. 

“We felt that the way we had done ‘Daybreak’ was the most appropriate one for that point in time,” says Emilie of the album, which included guest appearances by musicians who have served as friends, mentors and role models, among them John Whelan (who also produced the album), Katie McNally, Dylan Foley, Neil Pearlman, Jeanne Freeman, and Conor Hearn, as well as cellist/pianist Sammy Wetstein, with whom the Carrolls subsequently formed a trio. 

“The whole idea was to showcase people who had helped with our development over the years – a way of honoring our music community, really. It also was an opportunity to learn about the recording experience, because these people gave us their insights into the whole process. 

“But we knew that the second album was going to be just us – we wanted to take what we had learned and go on our own.”

“Having friends with us on ‘Daybreak’ boosted our confidence,” adds Nora. “Now, we’ve been able to make our own confidence.”

 The results of that transition will be on display Aug. 19 at Harvard Square’s Club Passim, when the Carroll Sisters Trio formally marks the release of “Radiance.” [As of Aug. 1, the album is available on Bandcamp and streaming platforms.]

The most obvious, and striking, difference between “Radiance” and “Daybreak” is the tighter, leaner, more consistent sound, reflecting the rapport the sisters and Wetstein – a longtime friend who recently graduated from the Berklee College of Music – have forged over the past three years as a performing ensemble. There’s also a decided emphasis on contemporary compositions, including by the Carrolls and Wetstein, as opposed to strictly traditional material, and overall more of a Scottish/Cape Breton sound – although their Irish influence is well represented through tunes written by Whelan, Sharon Shannon, Liz Carroll, Colin Farrell, and Seamus Egan. 

The Down East quality of the trio is particularly acute on the track featuring two classic Cape Breton jigs, Sandy McIntyre’s “Scotty Fitzgerald,” and John Morris Rankin’s “Seven Sisters,” with Wetstein’s piano accentuating that inimitable Cape Breton rhythm; the set finishes with Irish fiddler Colin Farrell’s “First Pint,” but here it’s been transported to the Maritimes.

Then there’s the epic march-strathspey-reels medley beginning with “Kilts on Fire” by renowned Cape Bretoners Howie MacDonald and Brenda Stubbert, changing to Wetstein’s march “Winter Sunrise” and then to another Cape Breton staple, “Hamish the Carpenter”; then the tables turn with Seamus Egan’s rollicking, occasionally ridiculous “Czar of Munster.” The whole set totals almost seven minutes, but the trio keeps up the momentum and the intensity.

The Carrolls’ willingness to make seemingly improbable combinations of tunes is apparent elsewhere: “Liam Childs,” a leisurely, honeyed slip jig composed by Liz Carroll in honor of the son of local fiddler Bob Childs, begins with a slow build of fiddles and plucked cello, gradually settling into tempo and rhythm (Wetstein takes the lead the second time through); then the gears start to shift for Galen Fraser’s E major-E minor reel “Baby Dragon,” cello and fiddles changing key and time signature, but using the B part as an intro. 

Not everything is fireworks and cannonades. Chris Stout’s polka-yet-not-a-polka “Tangerine Dream” (not, as far as is known, a tribute to the German electronic music band) is a stately, almost orchestral affair – including a dexterous piano solo – and Whelan’s waltz “My Ballingary Lady” is unashamedly sentimental, with sumptuous fiddle harmonies.

As the sisters explain, the growth and development of their repertoire has been connected to the environments in which they’ve been immersed since they began playing traditional music at elementary school age. “When we first started, the draw was the community, not necessarily the music,” says Emilie. “Connecticut tends to have more of an Irish music-oriented community, so initially that’s where most of our tunes came from.” 

But over time, they started attending fiddle camps that were mainly focused on Scottish and Cape Breton music, such as Pure Dead Brilliant and Boston States. “We’ve gotten lots of inspiration from the camps, and the communities around which they’re built,” says Nora. “We really enjoy the new and exciting ideas and styles that we’ve found in those places. So while I still play a lot of Irish, I’ve also gotten more involved in the Scottish/Cape Breton community.”

Being in the Scottish/Cape Breton community also enabled the Carrolls to deepen their connection with McNally, which led them to ask her to serve as producer for “Radiance.” They were not disappointed.

“Katie is very active in Scottish/Cape Breton music, and given that that’s where our focus has been turning, it made sense to have her work with us,” says Emilie. “Most importantly, Katie just knows us – she knows how we work, how we do things. We felt she had the perspective we were looking for.”

The trio appreciated the increased roles they were given in planning and critiquing the recordings, which took place over five days in a studio located in the Maine countryside. “With the first album, we were just not qualified at all to give that kind of input,” says Nora. “But Katie gave us a lot of ownership over our music, even while she was offering her opinions. And she’s very organized, took lots of notes, so that if there was a question or problem with anything she knew right where to go.”

McNally also demonstrated a talent for saying the right thing at the right time, as happened during a frustrating studio session. “We were having problems on this one particular track; we must’ve done 10 takes, probably more,” recalls Emilie. “So Katie says, ‘OK, I want you to go outside for a while, and just run around. And scream.’”

But probably the most important development in the interim between “Daybreak” and “Radiance” has been the strengthening of the sisters’ connection with Wetstein. 

“We knew Sammy was going off to college, so we had to wonder if there was any sense in forming a trio that would just wind up dissolving,” says Emilie. “But Sammy demonstrated an incredible commitment to working with us and keeping things going.”

That commitment extended beyond the trio, adds Nora: “Sammy had started out mostly doing classical, but when we met him he’d just begun taking an interest in traditional music. He’d been going to camps and other events where he could really soak up the music and get to know it better.”

Besides his prowess in improvising – such as his solo on the first track – Wetstein also showed himself to be a prolific tunesmith, and contributed three originals to “Radiance,” including the meditative “Sunset Tears” which ends the album. “Sammy is incredible at composing,” says Nora. “The three tunes he wrote came from ‘prompts,’ based on what we felt was needed for the album; he wrote creative tunes that fit perfectly.” (In addition to his tunes and Nora’s “Ivy Rose,” “Radiance” includes two by Emilie, “Fallingwater Waltz” and “Sparks in the Fire,” the latter co-written with Lachlan King.)

The process of putting “Sunset Tears” together also brought about a big revelation – something akin to the end of “The Wizard of Oz” about not looking for your heart’s desire any farther than your own back yard. The trio recorded the track over and over and over, Emilie recalls, but weren’t satisfied with the result. Finally, McNally and engineer Ethan Setaiwan asked the three to listen to the latest version of the track that had been compiled. 

“We really liked it, and we just assumed Katie and Ethan had spliced something together from all the other takes we’d done,” says Emilie. “But Katie said, ‘That was actually the first take you did’ – they had cleaned up just a few things – ‘and I think we should use it.’ So, this showed that we knew what we wanted from the beginning, but we just didn’t know that’s what we wanted. Instead, we had kept going around and around, trying different interpretations, talking it over. But all we needed was the raw emotion of the first take.”      

Information about events at Club Passim available at passim.org/live-music

The fiddle-harp duo of Jenna Moynihan and Màiri Chaimbeul reunites at Club Passim this month.

•Boston-area fiddler Jenna Moynihan has had quite the diversity of musical activities, like touring last fall as part of the Scottish band Breabach, releasing her first solo recording of vocals (“Five Songs”), and playing in a supporting role for musicians like Solas’ Seamus Egan and Hanneke Cassel, not to mention serving on the Berklee College of Music faculty. On Aug. 19 at Club Passim, Moynihan will have the opportunity to revisit one of her particularly cherished collaborations, with Scottish harper Màiri Chaimbeul.

When they first met at Berklee more than a decade ago, Moynihan’s versatile Scottish/Appalachian/Irish/Scandinavian-influenced fiddling proved to be a natural fit with Chaimbeul’s equally multifaceted harp style. Amidst their various other collaborations and projects, the pair recorded an EP “Back and Forth” in 2014 and a full-length CD, “One Two,” in 2017.

Their interplay is like a conversation with multiple dialects: Moynihan takes the melody and explores it, adding variations in fingering or bowing that might be Scottish, Appalachian, or other tradition or genre; Chaimbeul establishes a steady pulse underneath, then gradually transitions to a more elaborate pattern, perhaps doubling the melody or incorporating ambitious improvisations. Sometimes it’s Moynihan who lays down a riff or bowed notes and chords while Chaimbeul takes the lead. 

“The great thing about it all is everything happened so spontaneously and naturally with us,” recalls Moynihan. “Busy as we might be with other things, we had the time and space – literally, because for a while we lived in the same house – to just work on our music. 

“Most of all, we had a shared intention and vision for this music. We were able to explore it without any pressure – it wasn’t vital to have a ton of gigs.”  

To be sure, Moynihan and Chaimbeul did get to do their share of performances: In fact, their second-ever gig was at the British Consulate in Boston. They also appeared at The Burren, Club Passim, BCMFest, and “A St. Patrick’s Day Celtic Sojourn,” as well as the Edinburgh International Harp Festival and Folklub in Glasgow.

The pandemic “took a lot of the wind out of our sails,” notes Moynihan, and Chaimbeul – who had been on the Berklee faculty after receiving her degree – also moved away from Boston, and has been living in Nova Scotia. It’s only in the past year or so that the pair has been able to get together regularly to dust off their old repertoire and work on new material. They also are in the midst of putting together a new album, expected out next year.

Moynihan, meanwhile, continues to follow an eventful itinerary, which includes performing at the Rockport Celtic Music Festival in September, serving as producer for one album and working on a new solo recording, and teaching at Berklee. Grateful as she is for all the opportunities to put her talents to use, rekindling the partnership with Chaimbeul has been a special treat.

“So much of what we do comes from this unspoken understanding of what kind of music we’re trying to create,” she says. “To have that kind of connection, that kind of trust in one another, is very rare.”

 Information about events at Club Passim available at passim.org/live-music

Copley Street marks the release of its long-awaited second album at The Burren.

•It took Copley Street nearly a decade to come out with its second album, and now the Irish traditional music trio of Joey Abarta (uilleann pipes), Nathan Gourley (fiddle), and Owen Marshall (guitar, bouzouki) will formally celebrate the occasion on Aug. 27 as part of The Burren’s Brian O’Donovan Legacy Series. All three have highly impressive resumés on their own, and together they produce a sound that reflects a whole-hearted dedication to and love for the music and the tradition from whence it came. The 14 tracks on “Copley Street 2” are full of crisp and energetic but disciplined playing, and just plain good tunes. While most of the presentation is straightforward, there is ample creativity as well, and the trio shows a willingness to experiment with repertoire and arrangements. You can read more about the album here. 

 Information about events at The Burren available at burren.com/music.html